Santana's first rehab start a success

Mets ace Johan Santana took another big step forward in his recovery from left shoulder surgery Thursday, as he made his first rehab start for Class A St. Lucie. The results came out pretty strong, too, as Santana threw three scoreless innings. He allowed two hits and struck out three. He needed just 33 pitches to get through the three frames, and 26 of those were strikes.

Santana, 32, finished in the top five of Cy Young voting for five straight seasons (2004-2008), but injuries prevented him from reaching 30 starts in either of the past two seasons. Still, he was solid when on the hill and made 54 starts in the two seasons, putting up a 3.05 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. His strikeout rate has dwindled over the years, but he's still been a very productive pitcher and will easily qualify as the Mets' staff ace once he's back to full health.

Meanwhile, the Mets just completed a four-game sweep in Cincinnati and are trailing the Braves by seven games in the Wild Card. With David Wright back and swinging a hot bat and Johan possibly joining the fray soon ... maybe they have a run in them? It's probably a long shot, but definitely not off the table. Stranger things have happened.